Method of making arch-corrective shoes



Oct. 18, 1938. w. M. SQHOLL 2,133,579

METHOD OF MAKING ARCH CORRECTIVE SHOES Original Filed Jan. 10, 1936 Patented Oct. 18, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF MAKING ARCH-CORRECTIVE SHOES 58,457. Divided and this application October 2, 1936, Serial No. 103,636

1 Claim.

My invention relates to the manufacture of shoes for foot-corrective purposes, and has for its general objects to provide an eficient and advantageous method of making shoes especially suitable for use in the relief of weak or fallen arches.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 58,457 filed January 10, 1936, which application is directed to my new arch corrective shoe.

Sufferers with painful arch-conditions commonly wear what I may term stock arch-supports in stock shoes, in seeking relief, and even where only one foot is so effected it is common practice to wear such appliances in both shoes, to avoid the uneven effect or limp in walking that annoyingly results from wearing only one. By my method improved shoes are produced that accommodate the wearing of a single arch-support with little or no such uneven effect.

By stock shoes, as herein referred to, I allude to ready-made leather ones, internally contoured for good fit upon a normal foot of the size for which the shoes length and width are indicated by conventional standards; and what I term stock arch-supports are suitably stiffened ortpadded appliances (of which various specific constructions are commercially available) to be loosely inserted in the users shoes and to be positioned therein, in use, by coaction with the shoe and the foot; such an appliance being shaped in plan outline to underlie the foots width from a line just back of the ball of the foot to the rear of the heels under-surface, and the waist of the appliance having its inner side widened and arched upward, conformably with the curvatures of the foots longitudinal arch.

Such appliances commonly run in sizes marked with the standard lengths and widths of corresponding shoe sizes; but while such stock archsupports are commonly thinned at the forward edge to meet the shoes insole as smoothly as possible, and while the lacing or buttoning arrangement of the shoes upper will accommodate considerable variation in the arch-depth of the appliance at its waist without discomfort or making the shoe unsightly, the heel portion of the appliance, upon which its proper positioning in the shoe and its cooperative relation to the foot quite largely depend, is customarily of substantial thickness for requisite stiffness and durability (a thickness of about .125 of an inch being a reasonable commercial average), so that the wearer's heel is lifted in the shoe materially above the level for which the contouring of the stock shoe is intended, with resultant disadvantages.

Even when stock shoes and arch-supports are simultaneously bought, difficulties in fitting such shoes, with the appliances in place, not infrequently result in conditions that militate seriously against the users comfort; against the sightly appearance of the footwear, and even against best functioning of the appliances to give the desired foot-relief; and more specific objects of my invention are to provide an advantageous method of making improved shoes that, in their normal condition for sale makes them fittable exactly as'a corresponding size of stock shoes would be, regardless of whether or not stock arch-supports are to be worn therein; that gives them advantage in normally affording a certain amount of arch-supporting effect which tends to prevent occurrence of archtroubles; and that permits of the substitution, at or after the time the shoes are purchased, of a stock arch support for the detachable dummy arch-supportive structure of either or both of the normal shoes, with minimal discomfort, shoe distortion, or other drawbacks.

Thus, the improved shoes to be made have their foundation-structures-i. e., the permanentlyunited sole, heel, and uppernormally supplemented by detachable dummy arch-supports or lifts, the upper surface of which forms part of the normal interior surface of the shoe that gives the lasted depth and internal contouring of a standard size of stock shoe; so that, when said dummy is removed, the foundation of the shoe affords an internal pocket or depression, throughout its heel and shank portions, wherein a stock" arch-support may be inserted with but little, if any, undesirable effect on the fit, the appearance, or the comfort of the foot-wear.

With respect to the manufacture of such shoes, some of my more specific objects are to provide for the efficient production of such shoes on the same lasts that are used in the making of corresponding sizes and styles of stock shoes; to insure that the interior contouring of these special shoes, with the dummy arch-support in place, will exactly correspond with stock shoes of like last-sizes, and to insure that any slight variation in the thickness of individual dummy arch-supports used in making up a quantity of the shoes, will not affect the internal contouring of the finished foot-wear.

Further advantages of my invention will hereinafter become apparent from the following 619- scription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein I have shown one desirable embodiment of and practice of my invention, including various details from which variation may be made within the scope of the appended claim, but which I have found in practice to give desirable results.

In the drawing,-

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing, in conventionalized fashion, a suitable shoe to be made by my method, cut away in longitudinal section and having a dummy arch-support detachably secured in appropriate position therein; the visible part of said dummy having fragments broken away;

Fig. 2 shows in perspective a shoe-last suitable for use in making the construction shown in Fig. 1 associated, as in a manufacturing step, with a broken-away part of the dummy; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a suitable dummy, detached.

In the drawing, Hl indicates in general the permanent body or foundation of the shoe to be made, conventionalized in the showing of its sole ll, shank l2, heel l3, and upper l4.

[,8 indicates in general an arch-support dummy, or removable lift, that normally is secured in place in the shoe body, and the top surfaces of which form partof the normal interior contouring of the merchantable shoe, giving it interiorly a stock shoe shape, substantially duplicating that of regular stock" shoes of the same make and size.

This dummy, [8, simulates a stock arch-support in plan outline, and the depth or thickness of its heel portion l9 and the tapered thinning of its forward edge 26 are in keeping with average practice in the manufacture of well-known stock arch-supports; the waist 2| of the dummy being preferably somewhat thinner than is customary in stock arch-supports for the longitudinal arch of the foot and being preferably Wholly of leather. A thin body of adhesive, 22, adjacent the forward edge of the dummy, may be used to secure it normally to the insole or sole-lining of the shoe, for easy-enough removal on occasion.

The desirable construction of dummy I8 here shown comprises a preformed leather top piece 24, suitably arched and skived along the inner side of its waist-portion 2|, and with its heelportion underlain by a reenforcing layer 25, which here is shown as a short metal heel-plate secured to the top piece by rivets 26. Desirably, the forward end of this plate has its inner corner slightly arched upwardly, as at 21, this corner hump tending to prevent forward slipping of the foot in the shoe; to check any tendency of the wearer to rock to the inner side of the foot in walking; and to prevent displacement of the scaphoid-just back of which the hump exerts its slight pressure.

For purposes having to do with a desirable procedure in making the shoes, the plate 25 is provided with a central tacking-opening 28.

In manufacture of my improved shoes, it is desirable to use the same lasts 30 on which stock shoes are made; the last shown in Fig. 2 being of conventional style having the usual heelplate 3| to upset the points of the nails for the shoe-heel l3, such plate having a tacking aperture with which the opening 28 registers.

To give the added depth to the shoe being made, necessary to accommodate the proper dummy arch-support, that particular dummy arch-support which is to constitute a part of the finished shoe may be used, or a substantial counterpart of it; the appropriate lasting-dummy being tacked to the last as at 29 and the shoe being lasted over it.

In practice, the amount of surplus uppermaterial that ordinarily is provided before the excess is trimmed away in the manufacturing operation, is ample to accommodate the deepening of the permanent body of the shoe sufficiently to provide a dummy-receptive space or pocket AA throughout the heel and shank areas of the shoe, so that, with the dummy in place, the full foot-reception depth AB, and the last-counters, of the affected area are preserved; and a reduction of height of the shoeheel I3 is desirably made, to preserve a total height BC at the rear of the shoe corresponding with the height of stock-shoe for which the naked last is designed.

It will be noted that where the identical dummy arch-support that is intended to be incorporated in the particular shoe being lasted is utilized as the depth-increasing addendum to the last, its heel-plate 25 serves as a nailingplate in the manufacture of the shoe, to upset the ends of the heel-nails; and that such use of the identical dummy insures that the internal contours of the completed shoe will conform with great precision to that of a stock shoe made over the naked last, so that no change from a favored last and size is needed, on a customer's first requirement for arch supports.

In practice, the wearing of a stock archsupport in the pocket A-A that is exposed upon removal of the "dummy arch-support, not only goes very far to avoid discomfort to the wearer and malformation of the shoe, whether worn in both shoes or only one; but also it reacts to further the effectiveness of the corrective appliance itself, particularly by minimizing any tendency of the loosely-inserted stock appliance to work away from proper position in the shoe, and by avoiding that slight increase in pitch of the shank of the wearer's foot with respect to the ground which follows from the use of stock arch-supports in stock shoes.

I claim:

A method of making arch corrective shoes, initially of stock contour internally to fit a normal foot and adapted to permit the wearing, in either one of a pair, of a stock arch support without materially lifting the affected portion of the user's foot with respect to the shoe heel and so producing limp effect, comprising the steps of so securing to a stock last a lastingdummy of leather and metal, contoured conformably with a stock arch support, as to position its skived front edge on a transverse line just back of the lasts ball, its broadened waist to extend high up the inner side of the last's arch and its metal-bottomed heel-portion to cover the heel-bottom of the last and locate the metal to serve both as a nailing-plate and a thickener of the heel-bearing portion of the dummy; lasting the body of the shoe over said dummy-equipped last and nailing its heel against said metal plate-portion of the dummy; and detachably mounting in the lasted shoe a dummy arch-support substantially corresponding with the lasting dummy in contour and structure, with its forward edge portion adhesively connected with the shoe sole just back of the ball.

WILLIAM M. SCHOLL. 

